TAKING NOTES
Note-taking is an investment.
The more time, energy, and care
you invest early on, the easier it will be to write the paper.
The less time, energy, and care
you invest during note-taking, the more time you will have to waste at the last
minute.
Scrupulous note-taking = your
best way to avoid unintentional plagiarism.
When you start taking notes,
you are starting to write your paper.
Guidelines for Taking Good
Notes
1. Try to complete your survey of the library's resources and work
out a preliminary bibliography before you start to make copies or take notes.
2. Use paraphrase and summary rather than quotation.
3. Make sure that your notes make sense.
4. Include a certain number of facts to serve as your supporting
evidence.
5. Differentiate your own ideas from those that you are
paraphrasing.
6. Keep a running record of page references.
7. Keep a master list of the sources in your preliminary
bibliography, assigning a code number or symbol to each one.
--from Spatt, Writing from
Sources
8. As you begin to take notes, have a rough idea of the major
topics that you will be covering in your paper.
9. Make sure you comment on, interpret, contextualize, the quotes
that you copy. Don't just feel they can
stand on their own or that you can always comment on them later. Try to understand the author's intent and be
fair to it--don't distort.
10. When copying a quote, keep your brain alive.
11. When paraphrasing or summarizing, put the source away
temporarily.
12. Double-check your facts and your bibliographic info.
13. Distinguish between the author's ideas and facts and those that
she takes from another source. Document
that source if possible.
14. Don't quote (or underline) entire sentences or paragraphs unless
you must. Begin to discriminate. Begin to summarize.
15. Whenever possible, quote from the original source, not from
secondary sources. Don't just rely on
your source's quoting of the original.
NOTECARDS VS. NOTEBOOK VS. PHOTOCOPIES VS. COMPUTER
NOTECARDS:
Advantages: Portable
Easy to Organize by keywords
and piles
Good for bibliography, brief
summaries, brief paraphrases, and lists of facts
Limitations: Time-Consuming
(must copy quotes)
Difficult to do extended quotes or commentary
Easy to Misplace
Need to Remember: Use
rubber bands and/or box
Remember to include
topics/keywords
One topic or quote to a card
Every card should include
author's name
NOTEBOOK:
Advantages: Portable
Easy to do extended quotes or
commentary
No fear of losing card
Limitations: Difficult
to organize by topic
Easy to overlook entry when writing
paper
Time-Consuming (must copy quotes)
Need to Remember: Create
a coding system
Use only one side of page
Consider using a “dual-entry”
ledger style (quotes on one
side,
comments on the other).
PHOTOCOPIES:
Advantages: Portable
(can take home)
Easy--don't need to copy
quotes
Particularly useful with a
source you'll use extensively
Limitations: Just
putting off the work
Temptation to use too many
quotes
Expensive
Need to Remember: Discriminate
Don't just postpone the labor
Create a coding system
Don't just
underline--annotate and code
COMPUTER:
Advantages: Faster
Copying of quote
Won't need to recopy (&
err) quote when typing paper
Easier to include
summary/paraphrase
Easy to Organize and Search
by Keywords
Less Clutter
Limitations: Access
If computer not available at
library, you must check out books or use combination of other methods
Computer Error
Somewhat time-consuming if
not used to it
Need to Remember: Be
Consistent in your Keywords
Save files!
Back up your disk or drive!
WORKING TOPIC OUTLINE:
MUSIC IN DO THE RIGHT
THING
--Importance of Music in
Afr.-Amer. Culture
Community-Building
Artistic Expression
Means to Success
--Importance of Music in
Spike Lee's Films
Bill Lee
--RAP
"Fight the Power"
Public Enemy/Controversy
--Jazz
--Soul
--Other Ethnic Music in
Film
Salsa
Italian
LEE RIGHT PE FP
Spike first met Chuck D.
at a press conference in support of 2 Live Krew in
late 1988. Spike told the rapper about
DTRT and asked him if he was working on anything that might be suitable for the
soundtrack. Chuck D. immediately thought
of "Fight the Power" and told Spike about Fear of a Black Planet, which they were about to record. They settled the matter then and there. 25-26
LEE RIGHT BL JAZZ
"Daddy po'd at me for wanting to get some rap into Do the Right Thing. He doesn't understand how vital it is to the
world I'm trying to create here. He
feels it'll ruin his music to have it next to this 'brainless stuff.'" 58
Spike had to promise his
father that his next film would be a jazz picture in order to get him to accept
rap music in the film. [In fact, Lee's
next film would be Mo' Better Blues,
with Denzel Washington as a jazz trumpeter.]
76
LEE RIGHT AA CULT
"I'm really excited
about the scene in which Senor Love Daddy reads off the musical greats from the
community. It's like OUR Wall of Fame, a
musical Wall of Fame. I love it. Music is such a vital part of our community,
I'm glad to recognize those great names.
From Bessie Smith to Miles, Bird to Train, Wynton and Branford.
And I'm hoping that young people will pick up on this, that they'll
listen to some of that great talent and take pride in it." 95